Learning from 4 Year-Olds

Published: Feb 12 , 2015
Author: Stephen White

A recent TV
documentary (The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds) gave a fascinating
insight into the way grown-ups work. The film makers fitted out a
kindergarten classroom with hidden cameras, and then put a group of
4 year olds into the classroom to interact with each other, under
the supervision of two expert teachers, and secretly watched by a
group of child psychologists.

Having identified some of the personality traits of the
children, they were split into two groups and invited to build a
pretend house out of cardboard boxes and then decorate it. The
groups were pre-selected; one had the more dominant children in it,
and one had the less dominant. They were told that the team which
built the better house would be declared winners. Both groups
attacked the project with enthusiasm to start with. But the
enthusiasm soon gave way to bickering and an eventual loss of
interest amongst the dominant group, as each member vied for
supremacy. They failed to work as a team and the result was that no
house was built. Meanwhile the members of the less dominant group
quietly got on with the job, worked well together, made a really
good effort and won the prize.

Negotiators often feel that being alpha male (or its female
equivalent) is an advantage, because their behaviour seizes the
initiative and often scares less assertive counterparties into
submission. Perhaps that is right, but in most negotiations
negotiators find that they have to adapt their personality in order
to perform as members of one team. A recipe for disaster follows
when the team is made up of a number of dominant
negotiators.

Such a situation is brewing in the negotiations about to take
place between the new Greek government and the European Troika.
Both sides (teams) are bursting with egos. On the Greek side Mr
Tsipras, the Prime Minister, and Mr Varoufakis, the Finance
Minister, believe they have interpreted the anti-austerity
negotiating strategy perfectly, although their interpretations seem
to be different and subject to change (will they or won’t they
negotiate?). And on the European Troika side the idea that Mr
Junckers, Christine Lagarde and Mario Draghi will put their
personalities aside and work as a team stretches credulity, never
mind the additional influence of Mrs Merkel and other European
leaders.

Perhaps they need to spend some more time around a group of 4
year olds.

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About the author:

Stephen White
My background is sales and marketing. I read Law at University and worked for 2 major packaging companies for 13 years in sales and sales management. I joined John McMillan and Scotwork in 1984. For the next 25 years together with our colleagues we delivered training and consulting, built the global business and developed the Scotwork product portfolio.

Much of the behaviour in the House of Commons this week and last will be viewed by historians as insane, confused, unprecedented and outrageous. But for me, the most bizarre was a short statement last Tuesday afternoon from Sir Desmond Swayne, Conservative MP for New Forest West. When called by the Speaker he stood up and asked the Prime Minister the following question: